Methods, Systems, and Apparatus for Routing Data in a Self-Healing Network and for Self-Healing of a Network

1. A node of a communication network comprising: a transmitter; a receiver; and a memory that stores instructions; and a processor that executes the instructions to perform operations, the operations comprising: a. monitoring a mesh network comprising a node and a plurality of other nodes to detect each communication link that the node has with another node of the mesh network; b. for each detected communication link with another node, determining at least one performance parameter for the detected communication link; c. ranking the communication links as a function of the at least one performance parameter; d. receiving data, the data indicating a destination node for the data; e. selecting one of the communication links for transmitting the received data toward the destination node based on the ranking; f. determining whether the selected communication link is operable; g. if the selected communication link is operable, transmitting the data via the selected communication link; and h. if the selected link is not operable, updating the ranking and transmitting the data via a different communication link; wherein updating the ranking comprises reducing the rank of the inoperable communication link and wherein the transmitting the data via a different communication link comprises: repeating operations (e) through (h) until an operable link is selected and the data is transmitted via that link.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the selecting a communication link comprises selecting the highest ranked communication link subject to any other criterion for forwarding the received data toward the destination node.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the ranking of the communication links is maintained in a table and wherein updating the ranking comprises removing the inoperable communication link from the table.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the plurality of communication links comprises communication links of different communication modes.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein the different communication modes comprise at least any two of: Wi-Fi; Ethernet; Digi 900 Mhz wireless communication; power line communication link; and Bluetooth.

6. The system of claim 4 wherein the at least one performance parameter comprises at least one of: an accuracy of data transmission over the communication link; a signal strength of the communication link; a data rate of the communication link; or a bit error rate of the communication link.

7. The system of claim 4 wherein each detected communication link comprises a node to which the link leads and a communication mode of the link.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein the communication links are identified by their MAC addresses in the ranking.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the operations further comprise: redetermining the at least one parameter of the communication links occasionally and updating the ranking accordingly.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein the operations further comprise: configuring testing periods for determining the at least one parameter of the communication links; and determining the at least one parameter during the testing periods.

11. The system of claim 9 wherein the operations further comprise: selecting the at least one performance parameter.